WASHINGTON (WUSA) — Tuesday night, Ty Lawson reminded everyone that he is still an NBA-caliber point guard after being thrown into the playoffs off of a season playing in the Chinese Basketball Association.
With his impressive court vision and consistent outside shot on full display, it looked as though he had been playing with the Wizards for the entire regular season.
Lawson did not look like a player that was signed 6 days ago and played his first minutes of the season last night.
Although his stat line of 14 points, 8 assists, and 3 rebounds is not too striking.
Lawson played valuable minutes not only with the second unit but with starters as well.
He earned the trust of head coach, Scott Brooks, as well.
Who played him for 31 minutes; only John Wall played more.
Lawson’s play was one of the only positive takeaways from a disappointing Game 2 for the Wizards, where they lead for a total of 20 seconds during the game.
As a team that typically has a huge disparity between starter and bench points, it was surprising to see most of their scoring from the bench.
They outscored Toronto’s bench 63-42.
This was spearheaded by the play of Lawson, who was finding open shooters and getting the bench unit engaged.
Going forward, the typical Wizards issue of a shaky second unit does not seem to be a problem.
It is the starters that will need to shore up their play on both sides of the court.
Wall was the only starter who statistically had a good game.
Bradley Beal, Otto Porter Jr., Markieff Morris, and Marcin Gortat combined for just 27 points.
Wall (29 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds) was forced to carry the starting unit, scoring 2 more points than the rest of his starters combined.
As the series comes back to Washington, expect more minutes from Ty Lawson, who adds valuable playoff experience.
With the Wizards trailing 0-2, a change will need to be made for them to hang on to this series.
